Trolling Stripers with Braided Line

Northeast anglers are basking in their glory right now during the Fall Run of stripers. Yes, using wire line for trolling has unbelievable capability to get bunker spoons, shad bar rigs, umbrella rigs and Stretch plugs down into the drop zone, but let’s be honest, it sucks having to crank in all that metal.

The advent of braided line has changed the inshore trolling game for striped bass anglers. Superbraid allows anglers to get baits deep while trolling with much lighter tackle in much more efficient and effective ways.

“First of all, it’s just not fun at all trolling with wire line,” says Captain Sean Reilly of the Kirra of Somers Point, NJ. “Wire is heavy and cumbersome. Trolling with braided line has dramatic advantages. One – it is super simple to let the line out and reel back in braided line without the immense strain that wire has. Two – you can get away with using much lighter tackle. And three – the braid cuts right through the water column so you don’t have to use as much weight on the line to get down to the desired depth.”  Reilly trolls the thin diameter braid with a Shimano Torium 20 and matches his reels with 7 foot 30 to 50-pound rated rods. From the braid tie an offshore knot to a 200-pound Sampo Coastlock snap swivel, lock on a 8 to 16-ounce drail weight, then onto that eye, tie a 10 to 30 foot section of 60 to 100-pound monofilament leader off the drail to which another large 200-pound Sampo Coastlock snap is lock snap to a 9ers shad bar rig or Umbrella rig, Mojo Ball rig, or even a Tony Maja Bunker spoon. Deep diving plugs like the Mann’s Stretch plugs and Rapala Magnums that dig in to 25 to 40 feet are also braid-friendly and easy to deploy. Most importantly, when reeling in a 30 to 40-pound plus striper, you don’t have all the weight of the wire line and burden of “broomstick” style rods to mess up your battle with the bass. Try braid next time out and leave the heavy stuff at home.